Pastor Mike's Blog

The storms that we encounter in life can become catalytic for change in our lives. Through the storms we can measure the progress that we have made in terms of our character and maturity. We get to see the truth of what we believe or the lies that have deceived us. Often the lies that we have allowed to remain in our lives will only fully manifest when the storms come. We must allow the lies to become conscious and known so that we may renounce them and be healed of their damage. During the storm we hear very clear lies about our safety and security. We are threatened in terms of our convenience and our comfort. We think to ourselves, “I am not safe. No one is looking out for me. I must look out for myself.” Anger can then take over, or self pity sets in. Anxiety can stir up the adrenaline. Fear can either energize us or paralyze us.

It is important to understand that the storm does not produce these emotions, but the storm manifests these emotions in us. “Why do these things always happen to me? Nothing good ever happens to me. Every time I take steps forward, I always take steps backwards. The closer I get to God the worse things go for me.” It seems that the enemy of our soul has a lie for every occasion, but the lies sound and feel so true to us. The lies always have some basis in the reality that we are experiencing, however, those lies always cause us to doubt ourselves, the Bible, and God himself. We question his love, his care, and we begin to believe lies and accusations about God. He is trustworthy. His Word is trustworthy. This is the key, allowing the truth to rebuild our emotional world so that we trust Him and His promises in every season and circumstance that we encounter in our journey. The storms reveal what or who I trust.

Jesus simplifies finances. Sure finances can be very complicated and terribly stressful, but Jesus makes finances a direct benefit of your focus on the Kingdom of God. “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” All these things include shelter, food, and clothing. He compares the Father’s care of us to his detailed knowledge of a sparrow that falls to the ground and of the way that He so beautifully clothes the lilies of the field. Many of us are unwilling to trust the Father’s provision, and at the first hint of trouble or problems in our finances we give away ground in our souls to worry, anxiety, unbelief, and even anger. Jesus gives us promises for our finances that are trustworthy and relevant for our lives. You must learn to rest in his promises. Even your prayers can reflect trust, belief, and complete confidence in the promises of God. My mentor in prayer used to always say, “Learn to plead the promises of God.” The Father is predisposed to provide for you, His beloved child. He will not say no to your needs.

Lisa and I chose a challenging path in ministry, church planting. Church planting in the Christian and Missionary Alliance is not usually a lucrative profession, especially in Atlanta. Consistently the Lord provided in ways that I can only describe as miraculous. In all of our days as church planters our family always had a nice home to live in, good food to eat, and nice clothes to wear. I remember that we faced a particularly challenging time when we didn’t know where our resources would come from and our need was great. Lisa and I decided to spend some days in focused prayer with one petition that we brought to the Lord. “We told the people that you were our source and that you could be counted on. Your name is at stake. Show us your glory.” We prayed that for three days, and at the end of it I was exhausted and told Lisa that I was going to take a nap. She went to the mailbox and came in laughing and not letting me sleep. I was a little grouchy and asked her why she was waking me up. She told me, and I began to laugh and rejoice with her. There was a letter in the mail with a check for $20,000. God had provided again and in a mighty way.

When a seed is planted in the ground, you do not pull the seed or the plant out of the ground everyday to see if it is growing. Rather you water the seed and tend the ground around it to give it every chance to thrive. Similarly when you decide to live as a person of faith and to trust in the promises of God, those promises and the prayers that go with them become seeds of faith in your life. Instead of pulling them up everyday to see if they are growing, make up your mind that the Word of God is true concerning your life. That is a bridge you need to cross. As long as you are uncertain of the truth of God’s promises and provision, life will take on a decidedly negative perspective. The Apostle Paul who was no stranger to negative circumstances declared that we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus. He said that we can do all things through Christ Jesus. Such a description of our identity and destiny flies in the face of whining, cynicism, phony martyrdom, and the perfectionist delusion on which many of us waste our lives and our valuable energy.

Words matter. Your words matter. What you declare about your life and circumstances creates something about you and around you. When you complain, you sow weeds of doubt. The things that you complain about continue, and the complaining attitude tends to attract even more negative circumstances to your life. The habit of complaining makes it very difficult to recognize the positive things that are happening. In some instances it is not that positive things aren’t happening, but rather that the positive things are not valued or appreciated. A complaining person defines his or her self by how bad their life is, not how good their life is. Complaining people no longer feel responsible for their lives. Complaining and assigning blame tend to go together. Neither of which is very productive.

Take 24 hours and fast from complaining. If you fail, start again, until you can go 24 hours without complaining. Start a new habit–Be thankful. It will bring heaven closer to earth for you.

The Bible is filled with honest stories of the lives of individuals who we can relate to and learn from. One of my favorite of those stories is the life of the patriarch, Jacob (meaning usurper or deceiver), who God later renamed as Israel (meaning he struggles with God). He was the second-born of the twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah (Genesis 25:24-26), and the grandson of Abraham and Sarah. The Bible recounts Jacob’s relationships with his immediate family and with his extended family. Jacob’s conflict and dealings with his brother, revealed his personality and character as a contrast to his slightly older brother Esau (meaning hairy). His dealings with Laban reveal the similarities in the character and personality of the two men. Laban lived in Haran, a city in Mesopotamia which is today part of Syria. Laban’s sister was Rebekah, who married Isaac, making Laban Jacob’s uncle.

The struggle between Jacob and his fraternal-twin brother Esau began literally from before their birth (Genesis 25:22-23). Esau, the firstborn by a few minutes, later foolishly sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew (Genesis 25:29-34). Then, Jacob, at the instigation of, and with the assistance of, his mother Rebekah, deceived the then-blind Isaac into also giving Jacob the blessing that would otherwise have gone to Esau (Genesis 27:1-40). Esau tricked by his brother and mother, vowed to kill Jacob, and when Rebekah heard of the threat, she sent Jacob to far away Haran to live with her brother Laban. It was apparently intended only as a short-term absence, but it lasted twenty years. It was while on that journey from Beersheba to Haran that Jacob had his first personal encounter with the LORD in a dream of a ladder to heaven at Bethel.

When he arrived in Haran, he and his uncle Laban began looking to get the best of each other. First, Jacob agreed to work seven years to be able to marry Laban’s daughter Rachel, but when the time was completed, Laban pulled a honeymoon-night switch of Leah for Rachel (Genesis 29:16-30). When Jacob protested, Laban offered Rachel also – for another seven years of work, to which Jacob agreed. After the fourteen years of service were completed, Jacob wanted to take his two wives and return home, but Laban got him to remain for six more years tending his flocks – a very costly mistake for Laban. Although during that time Laban treated Jacob quite badly, including changing his wages ten times (Genesis 31:41), Jacob’s rather strange, but extremely effective management of the flocks, to which he got Laban to agree, resulted in Jacob becoming far more wealthy than Laban, all at the expense of his uncle (Genesis 30:42-43). In effect, the end result was that Jacob bankrupted Laban (Genesis 31:14-16).

The parting of Jacob and Laban came after Laban’s sons began saying that, “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s; and from what was our father’s he has gained all this wealth.” (Genesis 31:1). Apparently fearing that some sort of hostile action was about to be taken against him, Jacob fled suddenly: “So Jacob arose, and set his sons and his wives on camels; and he drove away all his cattle, all his livestock which he had gained, the cattle in his possession which he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac.” (Genesis 31:17-18 RSV). Three days later, Laban discovered that Jacob had fled, and because Jacob had to move slowly with all of the family and flocks, Laban caught up to him. Although Laban may have originally planned to harm Jacob and take back all of his daughters, grandchildren and flocks, God intervened and warned Laban not to do anything to Jacob: “But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night, and said to him, “Take heed that you say not a word to Jacob, either good or bad.” (Genesis 31:24 RSV). Laban, an idol worshipper (Genesis 31:19,30) knew better than to disobey a direct command from the God of Jacob.

Clearly this is a dysfunctional family. Brother against brother, nephew against uncle. Jacob takes everything Esau had a right to, but he was unable to enjoy anything that he had taken from Esau for over 20 years. When he finally returns, he is utterly fearful of his brother. Jacob became a wealthy man of livestock and cattle, but he lost 20 years in servitude to his uncle. If God had not intervened in the dream to Laban, Laban would have taken all of Jacob’s wealth away and left him with nothing. All Jacob’s scheming worked, but at a tremendous price: 20 years of exile and a life filled with fear of retribution and revenge. Manipulation, controlling, and deceiving all work on one level, but what will it ultimately cost  you, your children and your grandchildren.

God put Laban in Jacob’s life to reveal to Jacob his defective character. Esau was no match for Jacob. Jacob made Esau look like a fool. Uncle Laban was a mirror for Jacob to see himself. I don’t believe that he liked what he saw. When He met the Lord on the way home, God’s character was revealed to Jacob, and Jacob wouldn’t let Him go. His encounter with God changed Jacob forever. In my life I have seen God do exactly what He did with Jacob with me. He brought individuals in my life to reveal my character and its deficiencies. These relationships and encounters were never pleasant and many of them ended badly, leaving me broken and desperate for a healing touch from the Lord. Seeing my dishonesty and hiddenness in someone else, seeing arrogance and pride in one who had authority over my ministry, seeing someone else’s legalism, perfectionism, and selfishness, opened my eyes to my brokenness and desperation. In various situations I worked with or for my own version of Uncle Laban. God used those situations to break me and then to heal me.

In my years of ministry I have found that everyone has a story, and everyone’s story is filled with disappointments and unmet expectations. I once spent time counseling a man who ran an electric company. He was a great man and highly respected in our community. Underneath all of his corporate success was a lot of personal pain. He had experienced a very messy and publicly embarrassing breakup in his marriage as his wife had divorced him and run off with his neighbor, leaving him a single father with small children. As painful as the divorce was, it had led him to Jesus. During that difficult season of his life, he met Jesus in a way that he described as a feeling of euphoria that came over him and stayed with him for many months. For a time he did not feel alone. The presence of the Lord had invaded his life in such a real way. Yet that feeling did not last. The trials of life and the loneliness of his situation continued and even intensified as he threw himself into his work and into his kids. His son who was blessed with amazing athletic ability had squandered all his opportunities away on alcohol and drugs. His son’s failures were probably a greater blow to him than even the loss of his marriage, and it was in desperation for his son that he began to have counseling appointments with me.

At first we got together to try to help his son, and we had some success. Although he never reached his full athletic promise, the son found work that suited him and has been able to live a happy and productive life. As my friend saw his son getting some healing, he began to seek healing as well. As you can imagine, he was very discouraged. He felt like a complete failure as a husband and as a father, and because of his emotional brokenness, he was in a health crisis. To comfort himself he used food. His diabetes was out of control, as was his weight. This powerful man eventually succumbed to an infection in his leg that his body could not fight, and he went home to be with the Lord before his sixtieth birthday. Although we did not see his physical healing, in the three years before his death we saw Jesus rebuild his emotional life. His last days were some of the greatest days of his life as he experienced the presence of the Lord and is now in the presence of the Lord.

There were many ways that Jesus worked in my friend’s life, but there is one specific thing that I would like to share with you. Everyday my friend would make a list of things that he needed to accomplish that day. My friend’s idea of what he should accomplish and reality were never quite in sync. So everyday, every single day he went to bed disappointed in himself. He counted everyday that he didn’t complete the list as a failure, and there were few, if any days, that the list was completed. So virtually everyday of his life was a failure in his eyes. As I said in the beginning, he was the head of an electric company. He was at the pinnacle of his profession. He was respected by everyone in our community and everyone in his business, but in his own eyes every day he was a failure. Christ Jesus redeemed my friend from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for him. My friend placed everyday back under the curse of the law, believing that the curse would help him perform better and accomplish more. Well, we broke that curse over him, and little by little he began to live in freedom. He began to experience life. His performance became an expression of his identity instead of his identity a result of his performance. His last days on earth were filled with love and acceptance, forgiveness, patience, and greater amounts of joy. God allowed him to see some wonderful healing in his family before he took my friend home where he is now healed completely.

One of the many great promises of Scripture is that Jesus is our high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, having been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15) He can relate to you in your weakness, because he has endured temptation in every way, yet without giving into the temptation. This is a very important point for  us to consider. Because Jesus resisted temptation, he endured the full power of every temptation known to man. The more he resisted temptation, the more temptation he experienced. Think about it, we only experience temptation’s power so long as we resist. Once we give in to the temptation, the tempter has us. Temptation’s goal is sin. Once we are caught in a sin, temptation has completed its goal. Jesus never gave in. The tempter never gave up. Jesus experienced everything that Satan and his demons could throw at Him, because he never gave in.

There is only one who ever overcame temptation’s power, Jesus. Why do we look to our own will power to overcome temptation? Why do we believe that something different is going to happen this time, when we have given into the tempter’s snare every other time? Isn’t it time to take a fresh look at how to deal with temptation?

1. What legitimate need is the temptation offering to meet in an illegitimate way?
2. Stopping a behavior may not deal with the real emotional issue. Why does this temptation tempt me?
3. What is the lie that I am believing about God and his ability to meet every need in my life?
4. Being tempted is not the same as sinning. Jesus was tempted, yet without sin. Don’t resign to sin.
5. To resist temptation you may have to make a faith step. It takes faith to say no to the tempter and to say yes to Jesus. Faith steps become testimonies for trust.
6. Instead of trying to live for Jesus, would you be willing to let him live your life for you? He always overcame temptation, passed every test with flying colors. Surrender to Him, and allow him to show you the path for your life.

Lisa and I have been discussing the Storm Series today, and we realized how intense each of our topics are. This week is no exception as we consider navigating the storm of pain and loss. I was thinking that each of these topics brings up uncomfortable memories or feelings, things that we often want to leave buried and hidden. Leaving our pain untouched can seem like such a good option, but the nature of pain is that left unprocessed it just accumulates. Memories hold that pain, and memories that we are unwilling to revisit or feel unable to share become the filter through which we experience all of life and are the grid that we use to interpret reality. Many of our most painful memories occur when we feel the most powerless and unable to think or reason clearly.

Often I speak with individuals whose painful events took place as children or teenagers when their emotional development had not progressed sufficiently to handle the crisis. The result was that the painful event or events caused their emotional development to be severely hampered, often even stopped altogether. So much so that most subsequent emotional situations are faced with the emotional maturity of a five year old or a seven year old, maybe a teenager.  I have met people who through past pain are unable to feel, numbness being preferable to pain. How often I have come across people whose emotional needs are so great that they overreact to every or virtually every situation. Relationships with over the top people cannot be sustained. They are unaware that they are so toxic, thinking that everyone else is the problem. Most of us are a mixture of both numbness and overreaction.

We really never have to be stuck. God cares. He is the holder of your tears and your memories. The one who promises to wipe away every single tear is our redeemer, the one who redeems our greatest pain. Our wounded Healer, He is “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” He invites you to cast your cares on Him.

I am the oldest of 5 children. As a child in a very small home with a somewhat large family, I longed to be alone. It seemed in my childhood that I never had any opportunity for solitude. I never had any time to myself or my room to myself or the TV to myself. As a kid I often dreamed of being an only child. (I apologize to my brother and sisters.) From my family’s home I went to living in the dorm with a roommate and lots of guys around all the time. Lisa and I married the summer that I graduated from college, and Joseph joined us the next year. When she would take Joseph and visit her family in Kentucky, I got excited about having the house, the TV, everything all to myself. Then night came, and I was scared to death. I had never been alone.

I turned the TV on, the fan on, and left a little light on in the house. At one point we were living in a parsonage next door to the church building. The house was built in 1910 and had only been renovated once, bringing the outdoor plumbing indoors. That house had very scary noises that it made at night. The whole time we lived there I hated the night and its noises. For months I had to spend my nights alone in that house, because Lisa got very sick while she was pregnant with Anna. We made the choice that she was better off with her mom taking care of her and Joseph instead of being under a doctor’s care. I hate to admit it my fear did not go away, rather it got worse.

There probably are great psychological techniques for alleviating fear, but I choose spiritual remedies to psychological problems. Jesus set me free from my fear of being alone. When I found freedom from fear and evicted the spirit of fear from my life, I no longer feared the night or it’s noises. I found that my nighttime fears were only a symptom of the stronghold of fear that I had allowed to exert influence over my life. By taking my stand against Satan’s schemes and yielding the ground fear had gained in my soul to the Lord, courage and confidence began to emerge. Why would any of us let fear limit us or defeat us?

I was driving along a busy expressway when it happened. Lisa and I were overseeing two churches in Atlanta, and both were very difficult situations. The stress of my responsibilities hit me very hard, and I became overcome with anxiety. I felt like the situations in my life were out of control, and it did not seem possible to have a good outcome. My heart began to ache like a heart attack. I began to sweat and get dizzy. I even felt a little bit faint and like I was spinning. I think that I had to pull off to the shoulder of the road. Though I remember the incident like it was yesterday, the details of it are fuzzy. The feelings and pain I experienced were not.

All of us feel stress. Stress can actually be productive or helpful to our performance. A bit of nervousness increases focus for many of us and enhances our ability to perform at our highest level. Distress is something altogether different. It is a level of stress where we believe that the demands of a situation or our needs in the circumstances of our lives are greater than the resources available. Distress can create all kinds of physical and emotional issues including a panic attack like the one I experienced in Atlanta many years ago.

God delivered me and brought me through those circumstances, as he has provided for me in every season of my life. His deliverance and his faithfulness to His promises in anxiety-producing moments form the basis of my faith for my present responsibilities and for any future assignments that God will give me. This episode is one of the experiences that helped formed my teaching for Emotional Healing and Emotionally Healthy Relationships. God redeems our pain.

As I was preparing the storm series I came across something I found helpful from the writings of Andrew Murray. Murray’s writings have greatly influenced my life since I was a college student, as he is one of the great teachers of the “deeper life in Christ.” He speaks of 4 anchors in the storm: 1. I am here by God’s appointment.  2. I am in His keeping. 3. I am under His training. 4.I am for His time–In His good time He can bring me out again—how and when He knows.

I haven’t always appreciated the storms of life. I have loved it when life is moving forward according to plan and expectations. However, I found that my expectations in my early years of ministry and my young adult years were filled with idealism, wishful thinking,false expectations, and immaturity. Major storms occurred in my ministry and in my family, and I was unwilling to face what the storm revealed about my character, my faith, and my maturity.

In Mark 4 Jesus made his intentions clear by saying that he and his disciples would go to the other side. The storm did not change his will, but it revealed the fearfulness of his disciples and their lack of faith.

Let’s go together to the other side for the next ten weeks and allow ourselves to learn all that we need to know about ourselves, all that the storms of our lives will teach us. You will see that the anchors work in the most furious of squalls.